Businesses are increasingly utilizing targeted mailing lists to contact potential customers. For example, a business may identify a market segment that may be interested in the business's products and/or services. The business may define the market segment using criteria such as income level, shopping preferences, homeowner or renter, number of children, occupation, ethnicity, education level, age, or any other combination of demographics. After defining the market segment, the business purchases a mailing list consisting of customers within that market segment. Additionally, many businesses that buy and use these targeted mailing lists also desire to use permission-based marketing, where the customers' permission is obtained before the customers are added to the mailing list. For example, permission-based marketing only sends advertisements after customers “opt-in,” rather than sending advertisements and then allowing customers to “opt-out.” Many believe permission-based marketing is more effective and efficient than non-permission-based marketing because resources are not wasted sending advertisements to customers that are not interested in the products and/or services. Also, many believe permission-based marketing enables a business to advertise through direct mailing, yet keep intact, and to some extent foster, its integrity and goodwill.
However, most marketing companies that specialize in compiling and selling to businesses these targeted mailing lists have access to a limited number of customers and have a limited amount of information about those customers. What's more, because these marketing companies do not have an established relationship with customers, the marketing companies are unable to obtain permission from the customers. Accordingly, mailing lists provided by most marketing companies include a limited number of customers that did not give, permission.
Large institutions are well positioned to compile and sell comprehensive targeted mailing lists because these institutions have a large amount of information about a large number of customers. However, these institutions have been ineffective at obtaining permission from their customers.